K-12 Canvas Grants Aim To End 'Lossless Learning'
Instructure has given its 2015
Canvas Grants to 10 K-12
educators who demonstrated in their submitted proposals the best ways to
develop innovative programs and improve education. The winners, who were
announced during the recent SXSWEdu conference March 9-12 in Austin, TX, will each receive
$5,000 grants to accomplish the tasks they have set out to achieve.
Stein said the theme reflects one of his company's goals, which is
to
eliminate the loss of information in the learning process — lost
instruction,
participation, engagement or assessment.
"Canvas Grants is aimed at helping anyone turn a great idea into
reality," he said, "whether that's by designing new technology or
testing
instructional strategies that move us one step closer toward lossless
learning.
This year's theme encouraged educators to find new ways to connect
technology
to the face-to-face classroom and enhance the critical feedback loop."
This year’s K-12 Canvas Grant winners are:
- "First
Flight Alaska" by Mark Woodward, teacher at Alaska Digital Academy;
- "Bike Your Way
to Safety" by Kasey Cope, second grade teacher at Pleasant View
Elementary,
Zionsville Community Schools;
- "Smartphone
Photography: Leveraging the power of social media and smartphone
technology to
create and collaborate" by Sterling Worrell, visual arts teacher at
Hopkinton
Public Schools;
- "Is There Life
on Mars?" by Brian McDowell, STEM teacher at Mason County Middle
School, Mason
County Schools:
- "Steamboat
Makerspace" by Nicole DeCrette, library media specialist at Steamboat
Springs
High School, Steamboat Springs School District;
- "Virtual Student
Collaboration Zone" by Ashley Turrell, technology director at
Indianapolis
Academy of Excellence CFA;
- "Ridley
C-A-N-V-A-S" by Jim McCusker, biology teacher at Ridley School
District;
- "Students Learn
STEM Through Game Design" by Vanessa Smith, technology teacher at Bret
Harte
Middle School, Hayward Unified School District;
- "Digital
Citizenship/Literacy Through the Science Classroom" by Tim Smay,
science
teacher at University High School, Irvine Unified School District; and
- "Losing Less
Learning by Making Knowledge Matter in a Maker Lab" by Douglas
Ferguson,
elementary specialist at Martin Sortun Elementary, Kent School
District.
Another component of the Canvas Grants program awarded similar
grants to
five institutions of higher education as well.
Instructure is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that created
the
Canvas learning management system.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.