William M. Ferriter’s article is Why Teachers Should Try Twitter is more about differentiated instruction than Twitter. When I read it, I thought – here’s a note to self – time to explore how technology can be leveraged so that  “students of different abilities, interest or learning needs” can use  different learning paths so that they can experience appropriate instruction.”

Typically, in class, we create a single path and teach a specific amount of content to fill up the period of time while walking on that path. Ranking students’ ability to complete the journey is the teachers intention, and in our assessment, we measure how much of the content they have passed through as they walked along the path with us.

Here in Ed Tech, there’s an unlimited about of learning trails available and a wide range of students with different backgrounds, skill sets and abilities. I’d like to see what paths  students take to develop their technology mastery. So, to assist the “newbies” and to challenge the “geeks” in the class, I have created three routes for them to follow.

• Entry Level (students simply complete the Tasks )
• Adoption Level (Do the tasks and create a PLN)
• Innovation Level (Complete the Tasks, create a PLN and represent what you know publicly, online)

Background and experience with ICT will most probably have an impact students ability to complete the tasks that I’ve set.  Students be able to consult the rubric and complete a task at a certain level. In order for this to work, my role (as instructor)  will have to move from simply teaching to content in lectures and workshops to designing learning activities, facilitating and modeling methods to achieve mastery at an optional drop in session.

I’m trying to persuade students to use Twitter to connect with  and mentor other students as they progress from one task to another or shift from one path to another.  They will have to practice their skills and solicit coaching and feedback from their “networked sherpa”. Both instructor and student will be walking into a  “knowledge gap” and jointly taking steps to shift that gap a step closer to mastery. They seem keen and  I think it’s going to be an interesting journey.